Religiosity, personality development and protective mechanism against disobedience: a review

This paper reviews selected articles on the role of religiosity in two main aspects: personality development and protective mechanism against disobedience. In the first part, several studies consistently found that religiosity and personality are highly correlated. Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility are two main personality characteristics that reflect the personality of religious people. These findings correspond to the existing literature on Islamic principle of akhlak vis-àvis personality that indicated the desirable and virtuous characteristics of people with faith. The second part is on the role of religiosity as a protective mechanism against various acts of disobedience. Reviews of selected work indicated that generally, higher religiosity cause the lower involvement in alcoholic drinking, tax evasion, depressive syndrome and drug usages. New studies on exploring the underlying process on causation effects of religiosity from Islamic perspective, on the personality development and as protective mechanism against different forms of disobediences are thus, strongly recommended

Pembentukan model toleransi beragama belia pelbagai etnik di Malaysia

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji pembentukan model toleransi beragama belia pelbagai etnik di Malaysia. Beberapa konstruk dalam membentuk model toleransi beragama dikenalpasti melalui teori dan kajian-kajian lepas. Seramai 500 orang belia dari etnik Melayu, Cina dan India dari negeri Selangor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak dan Johor dipilih sebagai responden kajian. Data dikumpul melalui edaran soal selidik dengan menggunakan soal selidik Toleransi Sosio-Agama dan pembentukan model berasaskan kepada teori tingkahlaku terancang. Kesahan dan kebolehpercayaan data ditentukan oleh ujian rintis dan nilai Cronbach Alpha bagi setiap item dan konstruk. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif dan statistik inferensi, iaitu Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) digunakan dalam membentuk model toleransi beragama yang sepadan. Data kajian turut menjalani proses Confirmation Factor Analysis (CFA) untuk memastikan data yang digunakan mempunyai kebolehpercayaan yang memenuhi syarat dan boleh digunakan untuk pengukuran dan penstrukturan model. Hasil dapatan menunjukkan bahawa model toleransi beragama mencapai tahap kesepadanan apabila beberapa konstruk dan item dibuang dan konstruk yang sepadan adalah sikap dan persepsi menyumbang kepada tingkahlaku toleransi beragama. Namun, kedua-dua faktor ini hanya menyumbang sebanyak 41% sahaja dalam tingkahlaku responden terhadap toleransi beragama. Ini bermakna, selain daripada sikap dan persepsi, beberapa faktor lain perlu dikaji dalam memberi pengaruh kepada tingkahlaku toleransi beragama. Implikasi daripada kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa golongan belia perlu sentiasa didedahkan dengan pergaulan dan interaksi dengan kaum yang berbeza agar tingkahlaku toleransi antara penganut yang berbeza dapat dikekalkan. Sikap-sikap negatif seperti prasangka buruk, sterotaip negatif, prejudis, rasisme, diskriminasi dan etnosentrisma perlu dijauhi dan dielakkan agar keharmonian dalam perbezaan dapat dikekalkan

Religiositi sebagai faktor mediasi tingkah laku kerja muslim

Sorotan literatur mendapati bahawa tiada perkaitan yang jelas dan empirikal antara religiositi, personaliti dan tingkah laku kerja Muslim. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji secara empirikal hubungan antara personaliti, religiositi dan tingkah laku kerja dalam kalangan pentadbir Muslim di universiti awam Malaysia. Tiga instrument digunakan dalam pengukuran pembolehubah kajian iaitu NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO FFI), Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory (MRPI) dan Inventori Tingkah Laku Kerja Muslim (ITKM). Responden terdiri daripada 228 orang pentadbir dari lima institusi pengajian tinggi awam tempatan. Analisis korelasi, regresi dan mediasi digunakan untuk mengenalpasti hubungan antara ketiga-tiga pembolehubah tersebut. Analisis korelasi antara ketiga-tiga pembolehubah mendapati bahawa hanya tret personaliti Neuroticism (r = -.21), Extraversion (r = .19) dan Conscientiousness (r = .22) mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan religiositi. Ketiga-tiga tret ini juga mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan Tingkah Laku Kerja Muslim. Tret Neuroticism (r = -.32), Extraversion (r = .29) dan Conscientiousness (r = .22) juga mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan tingkah laku kerja Muslim. Analisis regresi menunjukkan bahawa tret Neuroticism, Extraversion, dan religiositi adalah faktor peramal kepada tingkah laku kerja Muslim secara signifikan [F(3,224) = 22.31, p < .05]. Analisis mediasi menunjukkan religiositi menjadi separa-perantara secara signifikan antara tret Neuroticism dengan tingkah laku kerja Muslim (B = -0.29; CI = -0.65 hingga -0.85) dan antara tret Extraversion dengan tingkah laku kerja Muslim (B = 0.28; CI = 0.08 hingga 0.58). Kajian ini mengesahkan peranan religiositi sebagai perantara kepada personaliti dan tingkah laku kerja Muslim serta menunjukkan kepentingan religiositi dalam mencorakkan tingkah laku kerja dalam kalangan pentadbir Muslim di universiti-universiti awam

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FACTORS INFLUENCING ENGINEERS’ ADHERENCE TO ETHICAL PRACTICES IN ENGINEERING PROFESSION

The engineering profession is important due to its significant contribution towards the country’s development, particularly in the aspects of societal development and well-being. However, issues related to ethics and other forms of misconduct among engineers have been highlighted recently. This paper aims to identify the relationships between factors influencing engineers' adherence to ethical practices in Malaysia. This study was conducted through a research survey involving 376 engineers in various engineering fields, i.e. electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and civil engineering by using the stratified probability sampling method. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The reliability coefficient for each study item, α, was found to be between 0.627 to 0.920. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that there were significant positive relationships between factors influencing engineers’ adherence to ethical practices. The relationship between the discipline at the workplace and environmental factors were found to be the most positive and significant (r= 0.606, p= 0.000). The study findings confirmed that there were significant relationships between factors influencing engineers’ adherence such as inner self conscience, environment, disciplinary regulations at the work place, religion, and experience which are found to be important in influencing engineers’ adherence to ethical practices. It is hoped that this paper can contribute new ideas for academia and policy makers to imbue the appropriate knowledge, religious awareness, and ethical values among engineers in order to uphold the engineering profession.  Keywords: works ethics, engineering professio

Penghayatan agama sebagai pengantara antara hubungan kecemerlangan hafazan dan sahsiah pelajar tahfiz

Peningkatan kemasukan pelajar ke dalam bidang pendidikan tahfiz menunjukkan bahawa masyarakat meyakini bidang ini sebagai salah satu medium pembentukan sahsiah. Namun, berlaku masalah sahsiah dalam kalangan pelajar tahfiz yang belum dikaji secara empirikal. Berdasarkan sorotan kajian, faktor kecemerlangan hafazan menjadi satu kayu ukur dalam pembentukan sahsiah pelajar tahfiz. Namun, faktor penghayatan agama merupakan salah satu faktor penting yang perlu difokuskan dalam pembentukan sahsiah pelajar tahfiz. Justeru, kajian ini bertujuan menganalisis penghayatan agama sebagai pengantara antara kecemerlangan hafazan dan pembentukan sahsiah pelajar tahfiz. Reka bentuk kajian tinjauan digunakan dengan pengumpulan data melalui soal selidik yang dibina hasil dari Perbincangan Kumpulan Berfokus (FGD). Seterusnya soal-selidik yang diedarkan kepada 905 orang pelajar tahfiz yang di maahad tahfiz di bawah Persatuan Institusi Tahfiz al-Quran Negeri Selangor (PITAS). Analisis EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) dan CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) yang dijalankan mengesahkan bahawa terdapat dua sub-faktor penghayatan agama iaitu (i) makruf (ii) mungkar dan dua sub-faktor sahsiah iaitu (i) mahmudah (ii) mazmumah. Analisis Structural Equation Modelling SEM-AMOS digunakan dalam kajian bagi menguji hipotesis kajian. Analisis SEM menunjukkan model penghayatan agama sebagai pengantara dengan kecemerlangan hafazan dan sahsiah mencapai nilai kesepadanan yang baik iaitu (RMSEA=0.05, GFI=0.97, CFI=0.97 dan Chisq/df =3.39). Oleh itu, kajian mendapati penghayatan agama dianalisis sebagai pengantara separa dengan hubungan antara kecemerlangan hafazan dan sahsiah. Secara keseluruhannya, kajian ini mendapati penghayatan agama memberi pengaruh positif dalam pembentukan sahsiah pelajar tahfiz. Faktor penghayatan agama ini perlu diberi penekanan bagi meningkatkan kualiti sahsiah pelajar tahfiz seperti yang diharapkan oleh masyarakat

Ideation in industrial design context: the importance of group process in brainstorming / Amer Shakir Zainol … [et al.]

Brainstorming is a series of procedures (rules) designed to maximize the productivity of groups engaged in idea generation by reducing production loss, popularized by Osborn, an advertising executive. The main concern in this tool is increasing creativity in an organization. This study examines two main factors, production loss and ownership of the topic that influence the performance in group brainstorming. Production loss includes activities in production blocking, social loafing and evaluation apprehension among individuals, while ownership of the topic relates to the interest of individuals in engaging the brainstorming activities especially in industrial design. Using a quasi-experimental research design, this study reports on the participation of115 groups of university students from 6 different universities. The data is analyzed at group-level. The hypotheses of this study are tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression. Results reveal that out of the three dimensions of production loss, production blocking, social loafing, and evaluation apprehension, production blocking is negatively related to the group brainstorming performance whereas evaluation apprehension is positively related to the performance or group brainstorming. As expected, ownership or the topic is related to the performance too. However, social loafing is not related to the performance or group brainstorming. The results are of potential interest to educators, and researchers. This study responds 10 a call for further brainstorming research

PEMBINAAN INSTRUMEN KEPATUHAN JURUTERA TERHADAP ASPEK ETIKA DALAM PROFESION KEJURUTERAAN (DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERS’ ETHICAL COMPLIANCE INSTRUMENT IN ENGINEERING PROFESSION)

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membina instrumen kepatuhan jurutera terhadap aspek etika  untuk mengukur tahap kepatuhan jurutera terhadap aspek etika dalam profesion kejuruteraan. Instrumen dibentuk berdasarkan konstruk yang dibina oleh pengkaji dan diperhalusi oleh 2 orang pakar dalam bidang kejuruteraan, dan seorang dalam bidang bahasa. Satu set soal selidik telah dibina dan diedarkan kepada 376 orang jurutera dalam pelbagai bidang kejuruteraan di Malaysia. Bagi menguji bilangan faktor dan kebolehpercayaan, data kajian dianalisis menggunakan statistik inferensi iaitu analisis faktor dan nilai pekali Alpha Cronbach. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan nilai kebolehpercayaan instrumen ini sangat tinggi iaitu  dengan nilai pekali Alpha Cronbach antara α = 0.744 hingga α = 0.872. Pembinaan konstruk kepatuhan jurutera terdiri daripada faktor diri sendiri, faktor disiplin dan peraturan di tempat kerja, faktor persekitaran, faktor nilai agama dan faktor pengalaman. Kajian ini juga mendapati instrumen kepatuhan jurutera yang dibina mempunyai tahap kebolehpercayaan dan kesahan yang tinggi. Justeru, pembinaan instrumen ini diharap dapat dijadikan alat ukur serta garis panduan kepada para jurutera dan para akademik dalam menerapkan nilai etika semasa sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran di Institut Pengajian Tinggi (IPT), mahupun dalam profesion mereka dalam usaha melahirkan jurutera yang holistik bagi memenuhi keperluan negara. Kata Kunci: kepatuhan, etika, profesion kejuruteraan ABSTRACT This study aimed to develop an instrument of engineers’ ethical compliance to measure the degree of adherence of engineers towards ethical aspects in engineering profession. The instrument was formed based on the constructs developed by researchers and refined by two experts in the field of engineering, and one in the field of language. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 376 engineers in various fields of engineering in Malaysia. To test the number of factors and reliability, data were analysed using inferential statistics namely factor analysis and the Cronbach alpha coefficient. The results yielded high reliability of this instrument, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of α = 0.744 and α = 0872. Moreover, engineers’ compliance constructs comprise few factors like self-individual, discipline and regulatory in the workplace, environment, religion and experience. The study also found the instrument had high level of reliability and validity. Hence, the instrument is expected to guide engineers and academics in applying ethical values into their teaching and learning sessions in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), or even in their profession in order to produce holistic engineers to meet the needs of the country. Keywords: compliance, ethics, engineering professio

Religious personality and gender differences in the perceived behaviour towards inter-ethnic everyday life among youths

The present study examined the influence of religious personality, as the manifestation of one’s religious belief, on the inter-ethnic perceived behaviour among the different ethnic and gender backgrounds. Religious personality comprises of three major factors: pro-social behaviour, ritual behaviour and anti-social behaviour. It was hypothesized that religious personality of the youth might influence inter-ethnic perceived behaviour by enhancing mutual understanding and respect, tolerance, and appropriate behaviour to live in peace and harmony. Respondents were 563 high school students, who were randomly selected from various schools in Selangor. The Inter-ethnic Tolerance Questionnaire (IETQ) was used as a self-designed questionnaire to measure the inter-ethnic perceived behaviour and the Universal Religious Personality Inventory (URPI) (Krauss et al., 2006). The findings gathered in the present study indicated that Indian, Malay and Chinese students scored the highest levels of the pro-social behaviour, ritual behaviour and anti-social behaviour, respectively. Comparing the genders among all races, female students were found to score higher than the male students in the pro-social behaviour, but scored lower in the anti-social behaviour. The multiple regression analysis indicated that the pro-social factor was found to be a significant positive predictor of the inter-ethnic perceived behaviour

Religious personality and perceived behavior among faith-practicing communities in Malaysia: uniting or dividing factors?

This paper aims to report the findings on the contribution of religious personality, as the manifestation of one’s religious belief, on the interethnic behavior. Religious personality is comprised of three major factors: pro-social behavior, ritual behavior and anti-social behavior. While religious practice is categorized into high, medium, low and not practicing. It is hypothesized that religious personality of the youth may influence interethnic behavior by enhancing a mutual understanding and respect. Respondents were 563 high school students from randomly selected schools in Selangor. Instruments used were the Inter-ethnic Tolerance Questionnaire (IETQ) a self-designed questionnaire to measure interethnic perceived behavior and the Universal Religious Personality Inventory (URPI) (Krauss et al., 2006). The findings of the study indicated that religious personality traits of types pro-social behavior and ritual behavior have significant effects on inter-ethnic tolerant behavior. Also for students with high and medium levels of religious practice, pro-social behavior is found to significantly influence their inter-ethnic tolerant behavior. The higher their mean scores for pro-social behavior, the more positive are their tolerant behavior on inter-ethnic issues

Brainstorming in industrial design education: is there mediation effect? / Amer Shakir Zainol ... [ et al.]

Since Osborn (1957) introduced the technique that was very valuable to create new ideas, the technique has been applied tremendously in various area and disciplines. Without exception, in industrial design practices, group brainstorming is also a tool that is much preferred by designers to elicit creative ideas. Undergraduates also are exposed with this technique to generate the creative ideas. This is because, they are always dealing with the problem of human everyday; make a better design for the sake of human. This technique emphasizes in the group. There are many factors have been determined by prior research. The prominent production loss that is disturbing this technique is Production Blocking. This study examines two main factors, personality traits and Ownership of the topic which influence Production Blocking in group brainstorming. Personality can be referred to as a consistent behavior pattern and intrapersonal processes within the individual. Ownership of the topic relates to the interest of individuals in engaging the brainstorming activities especially in industrial design. Production Blocking includes competition to speak among individuals. 115 groups which consist of 460 Industrial Design undergraduates across 6 public universities have participated in this study. The hypotheses are tested using analysis of Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression. Results show that personality of Extraversion and Openness are negatively significant related to the Production Blocking. However, Emotional Stability is not significantly related to Production Blocking. Results also reveal that Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness are positively significant related to Ownership of the Topic. In accordance with the expectations, Ownership of the topic is positively significant related to Production Blocking. Results also demonstrate that Ownership of the Topic mediates the relationships between personality traits of Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness and Production Blocking. In other words, groups that are high on these three personality traits would owned the topic given subsequently, reduce competition of speaking time during brainstorming session. The results are of potential interest to industrial design context, educators, and researchers